>> live and in hd, this is abc 7 news washington weekly, on your side captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- . >> only 37 days into the -- until the election, but this three days before the first

presidential debate. >> most believe it will be a crucial night for romney. >> president obama and arrived today in nevada for three bang days of what campaign -- three days of what campaign aides are calling debate camp. >> i believe in you. i ask you to keep on believing in me. >> the president and romney will hunker down over the next few days as they huddled with senior advisers to prepare for the showdown in denver. in recent days, campaigns have been bending over backward to complement their opponents and downplay expectations. new jersey governor chris christie said a high bar for romney. >> this is the first moment when the american people can see these two guys by side, letting out their visions unfiltered. i think that will be a powerful moment for mitt romney. >> obama senior advisers said they are preparing.

>> they have been practicing for months. i am sure they will have a lot of clever lines, but that is not the american people are looking for. >> abc news political analyst matt dowd says advisors are emphasizing style over substance. >> debates that have changed people's lives have been about physical debates and -- physical characteristics and mannerisms, not substance. >> both have challenges. the president needs to keep his answers short to avoid sounding like the professor he was before entering the white house. romney has to connect with voters and seem relatable. >> joining us now to talk about this -- a guest from politico. thank you for being here. so much at stake for mitt romney on wednesday. what does he need to do to make an impact? >> he needs to change the dynamic of the race. all the indications are that he is a few points behind in the

swing states. only five or six weeks left to resolve this -- he really needs to shake it up in a significant way. a lot of people are looking for him to put more specifics on the table. go to his website, there is not a lot of policy there. i think a lot of voters who have not made a decision will want to hear what he would do differently from president obama, not simply he thinks that he is doing a bad job. >> how important do we really think this debate will be in the whole campaign? 60 million people watched the first debates in 2008. everybody said the speech of the convention was a big deal. how important these think this will be? >> i think it is pretty significant. i do not think mitt romney has had many opportunities to change this deck. he has won debate now, two more debates later. he can try to take a advantage of those to change the dynamic. the early voting is already

underway in a lot of different states. it does not really matter so much what people think on election day. election day is every day between now and the beginning of november. >> seeing these guys -- they are really pumping money into tv ads. it will keep up. what about foreign policy? there is an interesting article on politico about how romney has been retooling his strategy about obama and his handling of libya. what you expect from romney? >> we are not entirely sure. the story indicates some of his advisers really want him to count obama over this attack in libya, in benghazi, four americans, including the ambassador, died. his chief advisor is say it is still all about the economy. they are concerned, but not that concerned, as opposed to jobs or something like that. every day he is talking about foreign affairs is a day they are not talking about the economy.

there is a real divide about what romney should do. >> we should point out the economy will be the topic at this debate, at least it will be domestic policy, for the most part. do we expect -- to mention romney might come out with more specifics. he spent four minutes on his specific plans for the economy during his speech. what do we expect this time around? >> we expect him to lay out more detail in this format, although whether it allows itself to an in-depth policy discussion is another matter. he is under a lot of pressure, especially under -- from conservative pundits, to put more meat on the bone and say what he would do differently on issues ranging from the economy to foreign affairs to everything else did you president obama -- he has a sunset of challenges going into the debate? >> -- his own set of challenges going into the debate? >> just putting the two of them together elevates romney and

makes an equal to the president. that is something the president has not had to deal with for four years. >> thank you. a reminder, those debates are on wednesday at 9:00. >> we will tell you what is at stake for the nationals this week. >> i am steve rubin in the belfort furniture weather center. patchy

>> metro officials and the washington nationals have an after hours playoff plan. they put down a deposit metro required to keep trains running after hours. the nationals have to pay for the extra service. they offered but the city refused. >> the nationals will wrap up their regular season and hopefully clinch the division. they need one more win to do that. their home monday tuesday, and wednesday. that is when the phillies come to count. get ready for the playoffs to start next weekend. redskins are home next sunday, when the atlanta falcons will come to fedex feel for it 1:00 game. >> still ahead a warning wide door-to-door salesman may be promising more than they can [ male announcer ] citibank's app for ipad makes it easy for anne to manage her finances when she's

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pamela howze: it just seems like such an... infringement on our lives. how dare they step into my life that way. it's none of their business. he's trying to restrict us again. he's taking us backwards. george allen is the last thing we need in washington. anncr: the democratic sesenatorial campaign committee is... responsible for the content of this advertising. [ male announcer ] jay likes it when his mobile phone helps him deposit his checks. jay also like it when mother nature helps him wash his car. mother nature's cool like that. mobile check deposit. easier banking. standard atitibank.

>> big changes on the way. >> we have showers and some thunderstorms for tuesday. tomorrow we start with sunshine. do not be fooled. things will change by late afternoon into the evening hours. and it's not so bad out there right now. we had showers and a few rumbles of thunder north of d.c. rain has moved out of here. skies are beginning to clear. te to fall. 59 degrees at reagan national general -- airport. northern montgomery county, even on george washington parkway. 74 degrees was the high today on target with where we should be for this time of year the last day of september. 91 was the record high back in 1986. upper northwest d.c., 53 degrees. arlington, no rain at all. we did have showers that moved quickly through earlier. the jackpot for the rain, 2/10

of 1 inch in frederick maryland. 52 degrees at gaithersburg. hanging on to the mid 50's down to the south. 63 degrees in southern maryland. warmer air is out there, well to the west of us. an indication of what is on the way as remove tomorrow and into tuesday and wednesday. temperatures tuesday and wednesday around 80 degrees then things will drop from their but our skies will finally start to clear. temperatures will be well above average. we're watching an area of low pressure to the south and west of us right now it is moving over the next 24 hours. by tomorrow afternoon, the leading edge of the cloud cover will be overhead and showers to start to develop from west to east, beginning tomorrow evening, with heavier areas of rain late tomorrow night and during the day on tuesday along with thunderstorms.

most of the shower activity we had earlier in the day is across the mason-dixon line. it dried out rather quickly. here is the future atcass. skies were clear up and and cloud up again -- featurecast. skies will clear up and cloud up again. showers start to pop as remove into the day on tuesday. heaviest concentration west of d.c. however, everyone will see something during the day on tuesday. and 80% chance across the mid- atlatntic. nighttime lows, middle 50's. then clouds will increase, 70-75 degrees. extended outlook shows 80 on tuesday and wednesday, followed by a breeze cool down. thursday and friday are absolutely beautiful. saturday could drop our in-town heights to the upper 60's.

sunday might be some of the cooler air we have seen this season. >> it is going to be oct.. >> the fall. >> 10 minutes from now. it will feel like that. >> with both financial and human resources stretched in federal agencies, performance has emerged as a primary initiative under the obama administration. they appointed jeff zients chief performance officer, a new position. in 2010, an updated version of the government performance and results act was signed. then the website was designed to be one-stop report card on agency performances went live. worth checking out -- a blog called make government better, put out by patrick chapman. federal news radio has a section that reports news on the government cost performance. in many cases, improving

performance could not happen without targeted investments in training and better information systems. as always, please go to wjla.com too many americans are

struggling to wnd work in today's economy. too many of those who are working are living paycheck to paycheck trying to make falling incomes meet rising prices for food and gas. more americans are living in poverty than when president obama took office and fifteen million more are on food stamps. president obama and i both

care about poor and middle-class families. the difference is my policies will make things better for them. we shouldn't measure compassion by how many people are on welfare. we should measure compassion by h how many people are able to get off welfare and get a good payinjob. mylan will create twelve million new jobs over t next four years helping lift families out of poferty and strengthening the middle-class. i'm mitt romney and i approve this message because we can'aafford another four years like the last four years. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ [ harry umlaut ] hey you know what, i eak european. [ sally umlaut ] european isn't a language. i think they speak all kinds over there. nah. it's basically one language with a few variations. my cousin has a passport. uh-huh. take this fascinating muller yogurt. frut up. means "fruit up." as in creamy yogurt down below. and a delectable, aromatic layer of blended fruity, moussey uppiness on top. frut up. as the europeans say. in their language. wow. you really are bilingual. yeah, i dated a comma in high school. [ male announcer ] muller. the european for yummy. when a door-to-door sales person knocked on the door and offered a brand new security system, they signed up. >> they said what was promised to them was not delivered. then they turned to 7 is on your

side. >> they thought they had a deal of the lifetime with their new security system. >> they came to the door to offer us a deal that we said we could not refuse. >> he was so persuasive -- i will do this and this. >> after a hard sell and a long list of slashed prices, they charged this contract, thinking they were on the hook for only $99 installation fee the first month. >> we give him a check for $99. >> after almost double was automatically withdrawn from their bank account. >> we were totally misled. >> then they receive a notice saying there are emergency point of contact dave commission for the extra amount. >> this is impossible. the contractor does not know about this. >> it turns out their neighbor also had the same issues with the same sales representative. >> we thought it was a fluke or -- but then she and i were

talking. she had the same experience. >> city reached debt to 7 is on your side. after an internal investigation vivint found that the sales representative made several clerical errors. and as a result, they no longer represent the company. we will work with both customers to fully resolve the issue. >> lesson learned -- continue with not answering the door and not letting anyone in. that is what i have practiced up to this point, but i got suckered in this time. >> they sent them a full refund and are still working out a resolution with their neighbor. door-to-door sales is part of the sales strategy. they recommend customers